Melanie and the Midnite Marauders, Alan Six, Fredward and the New Emotives at 11th Street Records, Saturday May 14, 2016

 Always willing to try something different and always wanting to support local businesses, especially a vinyl record store and recording studio combination (!), Melanie and the Midnite Marauders played this show with our friends Alan Six, Fredward and the New Emotives. Being a record store, it was an early show and was all ages so all of the parents in the bands (which seemed to be a majority) brought their kids as cheerleaders and dancers!

Up first were the New Emotives, a trio playing punk rock with solid chops - the guitarist was especially good (from my perspective as a guitarist) - who seemed to need to warm up a bit to the initially somewhat sparse audience that grew as they played and as the monitor sound got dialed in. I thought that they could have benefited from some backing vocals, but that's kinda nit-picking, as they tore through a set of punk rock including the Ramones "Havana Affair".

Next we got Fredward, a super tight quartet doing what to me sounded like a cross between grunge and pop-punk - kinda Foo Fighters-ish. Good musicians, good vocals and they brought in a good crowd.

Alan Six brought their underage entourage of chicken-dancin' go-go dancers to give an added visual effect to their anarchistic, though melodic, punk rock. It sounds like it is likely to fall apart at any moment - and it did here and there - but that just added to the punk craziness. Bassist Adrienne can really sing and there are some real songs within the turmoil and silly lyrics. Kudos for singing the Misfits "Angel Fuck" to a group of elementary school kids!

Melanie and the Midnite Marauders closed the night and although a good portion of the audience had to go home as it was past their bedtime, we still had fun playing to the rest of the folks and loosening up as we get a little more confident with our shows. Come see us again with Alan Six and the Undercover Monsters on June 24 at the Dive Bar!

Thanks to 11th Street for having us and being a rare underage venue in town! Support the record store and the studio!